Old and new constraints in foreign news coverage in post-communist Ukraine Natalya Ryabinska UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY IN LVIV, UKRAINE ABSTRACT: In the 1970s, when intellectual debate in the rest of the world was preoccupied with the problem of an imbalanced, one-way information flow between Western industrialized countries and less-developed countries in South and East, people in the Soviet Union faced another problem — a problem of deficit of information from the West, which was a result of purposeful politics of the Soviet state. In 1989 the Iron Curtain fell, but it does not mean that nowadays there are no bounds and boundaries in the flow of information to and from the Former Soviet Republics. This paper deals with the issue of foreign news in contemporary Ukraine and explores constraints in making international news in the media. It analyses a set of determinants of international news production in the Ukrainian media and the way they influence the scope and quality of foreign news coverage. The re- search is based on interviews with about thirty media experts and news producers at major Ukrainian broadcasting organizations, as well as from print and online media. The interviewees — editors-in- chief, heads of international news’ departments, foreign correspondents — were asked about the pro- cess of international news production in their editorial offices, the human and technical resources allocated for foreign news coverage, the professional standards of international journalism, as well as the main sources of foreign news and criteria of their selection involved in the news making process. Results of the study show that international news making in Ukraine is influenced by peculiar fac- tors rooted in the Soviet past, such as journalists’ inclination to one-sided reporting and poor com- mand of foreign languages (except Russian), and by common factors determining tendencies in for- eign news coverage worldwide, such as the pressure of the market which induces cost-cutting in media organizations and tabloidization of media content. An important finding of the study is the conclusion about indirect, or circuitous movement of foreign news from international news agencies to the Ukrain- ian media. Because of the peculiarities of Ukrainian news production described in the paper, news from Reuters or Associated Press regularly reaches Ukrainian editorial offices after it has been -pro cessed by Russian newsmakers. KEYWORDS: international communication, foreign news production, post-Soviet media, Ukraine INTRODUCTION In the 1970s, when intellectual debate in the rest of the world was preoccupied with the problem of imbalanced, one-way information flow between Western industrial- CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION 1 (2012) ISSN 1899-5101 .............. 41 Central European Journal of Communication vol. 5, no 1 (8), spring 2012 © for this edition by CNS Rozdzialy_.indd 41 2012-04-23 09:35:48 Natalya Ryabinska ized countries and less-developed countries in South and East of the globe, people in the Soviet Union faced another problem — a problem of deficit of information from the West, which was a result of the purposeful politics of the Soviet state. The Soviet media monopolized by the communist party were aimed at propagating communist ideology and enhancing people’s loyalty to the Party and the State. They were bringing to the Soviet people only information which would strengthen their belief in the rightness of their political leaders and convince them that communist rule was the only solution to ensure wealth, justice and happiness for the masses. Therefore, content of the media was under vigilant centralized control. The Party leaders cautiously filtered information from abroad — foreign news was not aimed at bringing Soviet people information about foreign countries but to deliver ideo- logical messages about “class injustice” in bourgeois societies and horrors of “the capitalist way of life”. After the fall of the communist regime the Communist Party monopoly on the media in the former Soviet Union was abolished. The Statute on the Press and Oth- er Mass Media adopted by the USSR parliament in 1990 allowed anybody to set up media outlets and to be their owner, and acknowledged the freedom and protected activity to seek, produce and disseminate information. It also banned any forms of prior censorship. In the early 1990s, in a major part of the independent states which appeared after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, media regulations were adopted, ensuring freedom of speech and information and allowing private ownership of the media. Ukraine was among those who introduced the most liberal media regulations in the region1 and, thus enabled the rise of fairly diverse and plural media outlets. One could argue that these historical changes would have removed information barriers between the former Soviet republics and the rest of the world and open them up to other countries by letting their citizens, among others, to be informed on what was happening in the world. However, two decades after the end of com- munism, international news in former Soviet Republics does not meet these expec- tations. For example, in Ukraine, the average amount of news about foreign coun- tries in main national newspapers is about 20%, and a large part of this news is about Ukraine’s relations with these countries or affairs concerning Ukrainians abroad (Kulyk, 2010). On the TV this amount is bigger up to 20% of news is de- voted to other countries, while an additional 25% covers bilateral relationships be- tween these countries and Ukraine, and issues of Ukrainian immigrants abroad and foreign migrants in Ukraine (Kulyk, 2010). However, foreign news on TV concen- trates primarily on “light” and entertainment topics — sensations, catastrophes, weather and celebrities. 1 See: Richter A. (2008). Post-Soviet perspective on censorship and freedom of the media: An overview. International Communication Gazette, 70 (5), pp. 307–324. 42 .............. CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION 1 (2012) Central European Journal of Communication vol. 5, no 1 (8), spring 2012 © for this edition by CNS Rozdzialy_.indd 42 2012-04-23 09:35:48 Old and new constraints in foreign news coverage in post-communist Ukraine A good illustration of the deficiency of foreign news in Ukraine is the situation with news about the European Union. In Ukraine, which has declared a course to- wards European integration more than 15 years ago,2 the media coverage of EU- related issues is unlikely to contribute to Ukrainians’ knowledge and understanding of EU news and affairs. Ukrainian mass media attention to the EU is very uneven and becomes intensive only during events directly related to Ukrainian affairs. For example, in 2007–2009 the number of media messages containing phrases “Euro- pean Union,” “European Parliament” or “European Commission” grew sharply dur- ing the EU–Ukraine Summit in Paris (September 2008), such as the start of nego- tiations on the EU-Ukraine free trade zone (February 2008) Brussels Declaration on the Modernization of Ukraine’s Gas Transport System (March 2009) (Internews Ukraine, 2009). In between these events Ukrainian media expressed on average little interest in the European Union and hardly got engaged in the discussion of the events important for the EU itself. According to the study by Internews Ukraine (2009), characteristic features of media coverage of EU-related issues are superficiality, frequent distortion of infor- mation and rude mistakes. There is a deficit of high quality analytical content which would make the EU less abstract and more comprehensible for Ukrainian people. It is no wonder that 34.2% of Ukrainians report that media give them little informa- tion about the EU, and 43% of them think that the media offers limited and incom- plete information (UCEPS, 2008). Only 10% of them are satisfied with information about the European Union they receive from the media. What are the reasons for the poor condition of foreign news coverage in Ukraine? Are they of an economic nature and rooted in the low incomes of the Ukrainian media conditioned by low profitability of media businesses in the country? Or per- haps in Ukraine (the country became an independent state in 1991), where inter- national journalism never existed3 there is still a lack of professionals who are able to present international news competently? Or perhaps the reasons for the defi- ciency of international news in Ukraine are related to limited access of editorial offices to sources of information about world events? This paper seeks answers to these questions focusing on the process of news production in Ukraine, and examining its economic (editorial budgets, media prof- its, market competition), professional (journalistic professionalism and standards), and information-supply (access to sources of international news) and technological (technical equipment, use of ICT) aspects. It does not deal with political determi- nants of international news making in Ukraine because the impact of politics on 2 In the Decree of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On main directions of Ukraine’s foreign pol- icy” approved by the Verkhovna Rada in 1993 Ukraine’s most important long-term goal is described in terms of full incorporation into the process of European integration and European political, eco- nomic and security structures. 3 Moscow was the only city in the Soviet Union where international journalists were trained and employed. CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION 1 (2012) .............. 43 Central European Journal of Communication vol. 5, no 1 (8), spring 2012 © for this edition by CNS Rozdzialy_.indd 43 2012-04-23 09:35:48 Natalya Ryabinska international reporting in Ukraine is not direct or manifest and deserves a separate study. I will attempt initially to indicate the main current tendencies in international communication and coverage of foreign news around the globe. Once this frame- work is established, I will introduce my study of foreign news production in today’s Ukraine and analyse its results.